A while ago, after a disportionate amount of umming and arrring and a level of indecisiveness that could literally have been fatal in my professional life, I decided to attempt the MRCP exam. I was doing a ridiculously busy SHO job with one of those rotas that embraced the letter but not the spirit of the European Working Time Directive so I wanted to embrace a concise revision plan, one which if I put in an hour a day would get me through all they key MRCP topics with a sprinkling of the MRCP esoteric without me having to trawl in a mind-numbingly dull straight line through all the cardiology topics, then all the respiratory topics, then all the endocrinology topics... you get the idea.
But could I find such a thing? No. So, essentially, that is what this blog has become - a skeleton revision plan for those approaching the MRCP with little time and a mind that likes variety in their daily revision. It is currently still a work in progress but as I write this introduction there are 45 daily battles and over 300 individual topics posted. The idea is to cover 7 topics a day, with hopefully all the key information available in the post but in a concise enough way to be able to act as a 'springboard' for you to have plenty of time to read around the topic if you feel the post does not have enough depth.
Hopefully this blog can be useful to those looking for structure to their revision, and also to those who are looking for something to dip into when they feel they should be working but are actually being drawn towards facebook/TV/tidying up/anything other than revision. I will keep updating an index of topics that have been covered (here, or in the index link in the toolbar above), so if you choose to use this blog to help your revision you will have the options of either to following it by date, which will present you with a random set of topics almost daily, or to look at a specific topic at a time of your choosing using the index page.
Early on I tried to write 'wars', sets of questions to check my/others understanding of the topics covered. Unfortunately this turned out to be too time-consuming so they died off... if you fancy writing 'wars' for posts that don't have them I'd love to hear from you!
I'd also love to hear from anyone with suggestions for improvement/corrections/comments/jokes (marietreasure7 at gmail), and finally I'd like to take this opportunity to offer the health warning that no-one except me has checked the accuracy of any of the posts and although I apologise for any inaccuracies I accept no responsibility for their potential eventual impact on your exam/life/sanity.
Lastly, as for who I am... well, a quick search of the GMC register will reveal there are no doctors called Marie Treasure, I've just opted for a degree of anonymity so I can share my failures without too much blushing!
So, without further ado, click here to start the most recent battle!
